A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an audio speaker. More particularly, the present invention relates to an automatic tilting mechanism for speakers normally mounted flush with room walls or ceiling.
B. Description of the Prior Art
A loudspeaker or speaker is an electromagnetic transducer for converting an electrical signal produced by an audio record player into sound of such as music that listeners can appreciate. The speaker components have been engineered to reproduce the source sounds with higher fidelity but less distortion. Among the ubiquitous speakers that are present wherever speeches and/or sounds of music are desired, wall and ceiling speakers are the special kind of audio components built into the building structure for who wishes the space to be an entertainment area when and where music or movie audio is played in a theatrical scale as the currently popular home theater systems demonstrate. As any audio fans as well as the professional speaker installers have experienced, finding a desired combination of speakers with different audio characters like frequency ranges may be just the start of a more difficult task of placing them in the architecture.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,101,262 to Haase, et al. is directed to a panel mount speaker system wherein the speaker unit is framed in a primary spherical mount and a smaller spherical mount member having a common pivot point so that the inner speaker assembly may swivel in certain angular range bearing against the opposing spherical surfaces of outer housing members. Because the speaker unit is made invisibly directional behind the flush profile of the system the desirable radiation of sound is blocked by the interior edges of the housing front face, which is again regulated by the architectural specification for speakers.
This means more speakers per unit area when a flexible sound system might need only a limited number of speakers to fulfill the audio need of the listener within the confinement of a residential space. In addition, the '262 speaker rotates along a three dimensional sphere like a ball joint rather than a linear track set to follow suit and thus it is not made adaptable to motorization that can be remotely controlled unless it equips a complex x-y-z axes mechanism to make the spherical motion. When the audio listener wants a better directional control of selected speakers such as after moving the seating position, lack of an automatic control system will lead to professional high ceiling job involving time consuming trials to adjust the ceiling speakers to the listener's preferences.
Therefore, there is an obvious need for an advanced speaker support mechanism to provide an in-wall and in-ceiling mounting with a simple automatic adjustment of the direction of sound propagation without having to manually rotate the speakers.
As for motorization, U.S. Pat. No. 5,321,760 to Gray suggested making a speaker retractable into an automobile interior wall. In this patent a retractable speaker assembly makes complex movements on a platform following an up-down swivel path formed on a first stationary frame member and then in a left-right rotation about the speaker's own pivot shaft as two independent actuators power the respective directional movements. In addition, to maintain the balance of the speaker body in motion, the rotation mechanism has at the opposite side of the speaker assembly a second frame member that is similarly toothed as the first frame member to effect parallel geared rotations in and out of the surface with which the speaker assembly becomes flush when retracted.
Doubled rotational parts may call for increased mechanical failures resulting in earlier periodic maintenances of the automobile, which is a relatively handy product to handle. But for speakers in architectural placements mechanizing them to perform the similar retraction and extension should be realized in a highly durable way to meet the high expectations set in the field of the architectural speakers. Once installed, such speakers are frequently guaranteed to work with minimum maintenance during the lifetime of the building.
In view of the foregoing shortcomings and unmet needs, the object of the present invention is to provide an automatic tilt speaker for in-wall and in-ceiling installation with a reliable simplicity in construction.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an automatic tilt speaker easy to the ultimate user as well as the installing and maintenance personnel.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a reliable pedestal speaker that is visually unobtrusive at rest and positively delivers more direct sounds in operation thereby promoting adaptation of the room atmosphere wisely for both the rest and recreations.